He`s Not That Sort Of Player (They Never Are)

<h2><font size="2">It is a curious thing that the only players capable of inflicting a serious injury on an opponent are those who are never, ever that sort of player. Football has a poor history of blamelessness... </font><div id="articlebody">

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<font size="2">In the entire history of Sheffield United, none of their players have been sent off more often than Chris Morgan. A damning statistic, you might think, except that Blades manager Kevin Blackwell remains adamant that it is only a consequence of Morgan's notoriety ('reputation' in football speak). Morgan's not the wrong sort, he is a wronged man. </font></p>

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<font size="2">&quot;I think there are times when Morgs' reputation goes before him,&quot; Blackwell complained to the Sheffield Star a few months ago. &quot;I don't want him to change at all. What you see is what you get with Morgs and that will do for me. I want teams to fear coming to Bramall Lane and when people see his name on the team sheet they know they are going to be in for a really tough time.&quot; </font></p>

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<font size="2">And in the case of Iain Hume, the Barnsley striker still recovering in a high-dependency unit in hospital after what we can euphemistically term a 'clash' with Morgan, he suffered a fractured skull as well - with some internal bleeding around the brain for good measure. </font></p>

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<font size="2">Blackwell has gone rather silent in the aftermath of that particular incident. Instead it is Neil Warnock who has taken it upon himself to defend the misunderstood Blades captain. &quot;It is one of those things that looked worse than it was,&quot; said Warnock of Hume's assault on Morgan's elbow. Well, it looked shocking and brutal and almost resulted in Hume's death, but everyone is entitled to an opinion. </font></p>

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<font size="2">The curious truth of such incidents is that they are almost always caused by the sort of players who are 'not that sort of player' and are never caused by players who very definitely are that sort of player. </font></p>

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<font size="2">The last Premier League player to nearly die on a football field was Petr Cech, whose skull was also fractured under challenge from Reading's Stephen Hunt. &quot;I'm not the kind of person to deliberately hurt an opponent,&quot; the midfielder declared, as if such an acknowledgement automatically cleared him of recklessness too. &quot;He's not that sort of player,&quot; concurred Royals skipper Graeme Murty. </font></p>

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<font size="2">Last February, Birmingham went a step further, not only declaring that Martin Taylor wasn't the sort of player to break a player's leg after he broke Eduardo's in two places, but he wasn't that type of person either. &quot;Everyone knows what Tiny is like. He is such a nice bloke. He has not got a malicious bone in his body,&quot; eulogised a dewy-eyed Stephen Kelly as surgeons pinned Eduardo's snapped fibula back into his leg. </font></p>

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<font size="2">Even Taylor's wife, Viki, was wheeled out to observe, &quot;Look, he's not like that - he's just a gentle giant,&quot; despite the impression that he hadn't been particularly gentle with the Croatian. </font></p>

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<font size="2">Meanwhile, Brum manager Alex McLeish's tried-and-tested declaration that &quot;Martin is not that sort of player&quot; drew a thunderous response from Arsene Wenger. &quot;They always say that. But you only have to kill a person once and you have a dead person,&quot; the Frenchman memorably countered. </font></p>

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<font size="2">Unfortunately, his outrage looked a little misplaced barely two months later when he summarised Abou Diaby's dismissal at Bolton as unfortunate because &quot;in fairness we know what type of player he is - he's a fair player&quot;. </font></p>

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<font size="2">&quot;He is a nice fella Diaby, it is probably just a badly-timed tackle and he is not that sort of player,&quot; chimed Ray Parlour helpfully on the club's website. </font></p>

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<font size="2">The more you look, the more remarkable it becomes that so many dangerous fouls are committed by players who aren't the players who commit dangerous tackles. </font></p>

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<font size="2">&quot;Anyone who knows me knows that I'm not that sort of player,&quot; Jamie Redknapp explained after planting his studs into Tim Cahill's knee a few years ago; &quot;I'm never going to try to hurt a fellow professional,&quot; back-slapped Steven Gerrard after his two-footed lunge on Everton's Gary Naysmith; &quot;I am not a malicious player and I would never go out to deliberately injure anyone,&quot; Danny Tiatto confirmed after cutting Blackburn's David Thompson in two in 2003; &quot;I hear that Damien has come off worse but there is absolutely no way I would deliberately hurt or 'do' a fellow professional. Anyone who knows me or has played with me, will vouch for that,&quot; announced WBA's Paul Robinson after being sent off in 2004 for assaulting Birmingham's Damien Johnson. And so on and so on. More recently, Newcastle's Danny Guthrie insisted that his leg-breaking lash at Hull's Craig Fagan was &quot;out of character&quot; despite the clear evidence that it was part of his character nonetheless. </font></p>

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<font size="2">However, there are some occasions when even those apologists holed up in football's bubble become aware that the usual defence isn't the right sort of response. So it was with Stuart Pearce when then Manchester City left-back Ben Thatcher knocked Pedro Mendes unconscious during a league match in 2006. As Thatcher's previous suggested that he really was the wrong sort, Pearce adopted a novel approach and depicted the accused as a man corrupted by the game itself. </font></p>

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<font size="2">&quot;I know Ben Thatcher and off the field he is genuinely a good lad,&quot; he assured the nation. &quot;Get inside the soul of the man, any bravado is washed away and you see just a family man who's very protective of his wife and children.&quot; </font></p>

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<font size="2">So that's sorted then - and no doubts word of epic comfort to Mendes when he woke up in a Manchester hospital. </font></p>

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<font size="2">Pete Gill</font></p>

<font size="2">thanks to football365</font></p></div></h2>

 

off the pitch maybe you couldnt meet icer guys but on the pitch is a different kettle of fish

 

RE: Well apart from Joey Barton

its no different to sunday league you get the biggest tit going who wants to break everyones legs and are just plain nasty soon as final whistle goes 'good game mate unlucky' lets go for a pint'

 

The main difference with Hunt and Taylor ....

is that both injuries occurred in the player going for the ball and at the time of the tackle. Morgan clearly elbows Hume out of the way first, leaving himself with no opponent to compete for the header, which he is able to win with both feet on the ground. This is what makes the difference between clear intent and the possibility of the incident being unintentional.